1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a wheeled receptacle designed to receive and contain a cleaning liquid, to transport the cleaning liquid, and to provide a user with access to the cleaning liquid for use in cleaning a hard surface, such as a floor, wall, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Maintaining the cleanliness of commercial, industrial, institutional, and public buildings is an ongoing effort, and at times, an effort which seems more like a losing battle. This is particularly true for hard-surface floors in high-traffic areas, for example, classrooms, hallways, restrooms, locker rooms, cafeterias, and food-service kitchens, where the volume of traffic in the particular area may make it difficult to maintain the cleanliness of the flooring.
Depending upon the particular type of floor, building-maintenance workers typically maintain the flooring by performing one or more of routine floor cleaning (i.e., dust mopping and/or wet mopping), floor finishing (also referred to as floor waxing), floor stripping, and floor degreasing.
Unfortunately, workers are provided with tools that are relatively ineffective and inefficient for performing these floor-maintenance tasks. For example, routine floor cleaning involves two separate processes, with each process calling for a different tool. In further detail, when dusting a floor, a worker pushes a dry dustmop across the floor, with some of the dust and dirt collecting in the dustmop, and much of the dust, dirt, and trash piling up along the front of the dustmop. Once the worker has made several passes with the dustmop, they then shake out the contents of the dustmop, either into a waste receptacle or onto a section of the floor, itself. In either case, dust and dirt are released back into the air. Then, in a totally separate process, the worker swabs down the floor using a wet mop and a mop bucket filled with water or a cleaning solution. Depending on the cleanliness of the mop, the worker may be able to make a good start in cleaning the floor using the wet mop and mop bucket. However, as soon as the worker wrings the soiled water from the mop into the mop bucket, then, each time the worker plunges the mop into the bucket and wrings out the mop, both the mop and the “cleaning water” become more and more dirty. The end result is that a dirty floor gets cleaned by pushing dirty water around with a dirty mop. At best, the floor surface may have the appearance of being clean if concentrated spots of highly visible soil have been removed or spread around. In reality, however, given the limitation of these tools, the worker still is simply pushing dirt around the floor, as evidenced by the “5-o'clock shadow” of dirt seen frequently along the surface of baseboards and walls adjacent the floor, as well as the “finger-painting-like streaks” left by the mop when the water on the floor dries.
Building-maintenance workers also use the conventional mop/mop-bucket system for floor-finishing-, floor-stripping-, and floor-degreasing-applications. As is the case with the general cleaning methods described above, the mop/mop-bucket system is relatively ineffective and inefficient. For example, when a worker uses such tools to apply floor finish, the end result frequently is a finish with bubbles and streaks, and/or a finish in which the coats of finish are dull, hazy, and uneven. Accordingly, given the relative ineffectiveness and/or inefficiency of the various tools given to building-maintenance workers for use in floor care, floors often are not cleaned as well, or as frequently, as they should be, and morale and job satisfaction among many building-maintenance workers are relatively low.